Life to Death Part 1: The Rise of The Chrysanthemum
by emperorjimmu
Summary: Life without feeling is not a life lived.
1. Prologue

Gotham Cemetery high on the hill above the City. The sky is an ominous purple and a bitter wind gusts in relays across the hallowed ground.

Within sight of the Wayne mausoleum, a young boy and a few adults stand silently around a newly dug double grave as the priest mutters his intonations. As he finishes, the young boy lets earth slowly drip through his fingers onto the coffins. As rain begins to fall, big gobbets pinging onto the polished wood, Bruce Wayne, who had been standing alone further away, steps forward from the foot of the graves and gently throws one red and one white flower onto the now shining coffins. Briefly, his eyes meet the young boy's but he is unseeing. Desolate. Alone. Numb. Uncomprehending. Empty.

 **Three days earlier.**

Rush hour in Gotham City. The main streets are gridlocked and, as the offices and shops vomit their workers back to their lives, the sidewalks fill with the human drones. Suddenly, there are screams and shouting as people throw themselves left and right parting a way for a motorcycle screaming between them. The maniacal cackling of The Joker rises above the pedestrians as he guns his bike relentlessly through the human stream.

On the main highway, some way behind the same thing is happening as motorists struggle to get out of the way of the Batmobile.

Up ahead, at a crossing, a man with his wife and young son set out across the road. The Joker, now having zig-zagged off the sidewalk and back on the highway, sees them. At full throttle he hurtles towards them, making no concession for the woman or child. At the last second the man manages to throw his wife and son out of the way. But too late. Both he and his wife are killed instantly.

Batman steps out of the Batmobile and looks down at the young boy. He is paralysed with fear, shaking uncontrollably. He walks away, gets back into the Batmobile and screeches off back in the direction he has come.

 **The night of the funeral.**

In a small study on the ground floor of Wayne Manor a fire spits and crackles, sinister shadows filling the room echoing the darkness outside and the mood within. Bruce Wayne sits in a leather chair lit only by the fire and a small directional light, tapping on his tablet.

The door opens and closes again as Alfred is lit briefly by the light from corridor. He strides slowly and deliberately towards Bruce:

"Here are the current Wayne Foundation beneficiaries you asked for", he said leaning forward and handing Bruce a USB stick.

"If I may say so, Master Bruce…"

"No you may not! Not tonight, Alfred", Bruce said sharply, immediately regretting his tone. Alfred carried on, ignoring him:

"….the ability to feel is what sets you apart from the psychopaths in The Asylum. There is nothing wrong or weak in that". And he turned and left the room, slowly and deliberately as before.

In his chair, Bruce Wayne visibly slumps.


	2. Nineteen years later

**Nineteen years later.**

The Gotham Museum of Art. One week to go before the opening of the blockbuster exhibition, 'Flowers in Western Art'. All around the museum lies the detritus of the exhibitors who are busy lighting and hanging the paintings. However, the main gallery is ready housing all of Monet's work from his time at Giverny plus, for the first time, all of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Small scampering noises can be heard as a line of moving shadows is cast upon the walls. The Joker, leading his team, dances animatedly towards the main gallery, spray can in hand. Suddenly, they are stopped in their tracks as a well spoken English voice emerges from the darkness:

"Leave it alone, Joker."

Whirling around, The Joker and his crew now tensed and ready for action, see a young man step out of the shadows. Six foot with black floppy hair, the man is dressed in a white suit covered in red and white chrysanthemums that bleed into each other as if water has spilled onto a finished watercolour. He is wearing a mask, one eye red, the other white and is carrying a cane:

"Don't destroy the art. It is here for the people. Walk away and we can all carry on as if we'd never met."

"Oooo! What have we here? Haute couture horticulture! I'm not here to destroy it, I'm here to ENHANCE it. This is not art for the people. It's hidden and hived off by the rich and powerful who, when, and only when, they are forced, deign to grant access to us. By altering it, I LIBERATE it for everyone. I am giving art BACK to the people!"

"Crap. Great art is great art. Wagner held extreme views. Doesn't diminish his music in any way."

"You say tom-are-toe, I say tom-ay-toe. You weren't welcome at Boston and you're not welcome at my party either."

As they had been talking, The Joker had seemingly nonchalantly been making his way ever nearer to the young man. His team had similarly done the same.

Now within striking distance, The Joker launches himself at The Chrysanthemum. But he neatly sidesteps the onslaught and smashing his cane into The Joker, winds him then sends him reeling backwards. Simultaneously, The Joker's team spring towards The Chrysanthemum. Using his cane both as a staff and a lance, The Chrysanthemum moves swiftly and elegantly, leaving bodies strewn either incapacitated, wounded or dead. The dust-up lasts less than a minute.

He walks towards The Joker, who is now on one knee, one arm wrapped across his chest. Hooking the top of his cane under The Joker's chin he says:

"I said, 'Stay out of MY business.'" And with a swift uppercut, he smashes into The Joker knocking him unconscious.


	3. Arkham Asylum

**Arkham Asylum**

In the control room monitoring the inmates, Bruce Wayne sits on the corner of a desk, one leg dangling, talking to Dr. Vector. On various screens appear, among others, Egghead, The Mad Hatter and King Tut:

"We can't thank you enough Mr Wayne for funding the research into Amnesiol. This drug could be the breakthrough we're looking for in the treatment of psychopathy."

"Anything we can do to help these poor wretches live a normal life. But I'm no doctor. How does it work?"

"We know that psychopathy has a genetic element but until now gene replacement therapy could only be corrected in the womb. Amnesiol is the first oral medicine that works on effects of the genes. We have, thus far, had great success in helping psychopaths 'forget' their behaviour. But we're now moving into the final phases of testing. As yet, we don't know if it will help extreme psychopaths, what, if any, are the long term effects on them, and what happens if these patients stop taking the drugs."

"Well, thanks for the tour, Dr. Vector. Good luck. I hope you get the answers you're looking for."


	4. Outside a luxury apartment block

**Outside a luxury apartment block**

A driverless limousine draws up. A tall man with black floppy hair dressed in a dinner suit, jumps out, enters the building via a private entrance and takes the elevator to the top floor. He enters the apartment using a swipe card. Inside, about fifty people mill around in various states of undress, standing, lying, bending over, having sex. The whole gamut of human sexual expression seems to be present. Some watch, others have multiple partners while others live out their fantasies using toys and bondage equipment. Everywhere people are groaning, moaning and writhing.

The Chrysanthemum makes his way through the throng to the bar at the back of the main living area. By the time he gets there he has cast off his clothes and is completely naked. As he pours himself a drink, a young man comes up to him, puts his arm around him and kisses him passionately.

In the bathroom, several hours later, The Chrysanthemum finishes dressing himself, works his way around the room and leaves. The apartment is now silent. Naked and semi naked bodies lie everywhere, many in the throes of passion. Over each body is placed either one red or one white chrysanthemum.

 **The same apartment, twelve hours later**

"I thought I'd call you. When the media get hold of this, there's gonna be a shitstorm. Plus the flowers are an odd one. We don't know what their significance is, yet."

"Any idea who they are and what they were doing here, Commissioner? Apart from the obvious."

"Seems it was a sex party. But a very, very exclusive one. What we have here are the great and good of Gotham society. Some are wives and husbands together but I suspect many of them are here without their spouses knowing so it's gonna be a helluva shock. The lawyers are going to have a field day. You can expect the courts to be backed-up for the next decade not to mention a shaking out in the judiciary, business and local government. Whoever did this knew how to cause maximum embarrassment and chaos."

"Do you mind if I take some flowers back to the Batcave for analysis?"

"Be my guest. I've a very bad feeling about this and we need to stop it before worse can be done."


	5. Ben Davenport Enterprises

**The top floor of Ben Davenport Enterprises, the world's biggest and most successful consumer electronics firm**

Ben Davenport sits on a small chair in front of his desk, fingers pressed together, black floppy hair covering one of his eyes, deep in thought. His station sits on a small dais in front of the large window showcasing a sky view of Gotham City. Ben stares expressionless at the wall in front of him. On it are thirty one 'saints', the most important people in the history of consumer electronics and computing. They include Alan Turing, Steve Wozniak, Tim Berners-Lee, Gordon Moore, Hewlett and Packard, Bram Cohen, Ada Lovelace, Linus Torvalds, Jim Clark and Marc Andreesen, Tommy Flowers, Grace Hopper, Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka, Charles Ranlett Flint, Herman Hollerith, Robert H Dennard and Konosuke Matsushita.

A door opens in the wall, breaking the display of portraits. A young woman, prematurely grey, walks purposefully towards Ben. Known to all but a select few as 'Salt' she is his deputy:

"We've just had confirmation. The fragrance units have just been delivered to the Gallery and our guys are busy installing them." Using graphene as its processor base and nano factories, BDE has created the first computers that can be programmed to produce any fragrance or smell. Emerging briefly from his reverie, Ben says:

"Excellent, excellent," and hunkers back down. Salt, completely in tune with Ben turns silently and leaves.


	6. The Joker's Lair

**The Joker's Lair**

The Joker paces up and down, raving uncontrollably. His henchman, variously mooching around, know not to interrupt him in this mood. One wrong word, one misinterpreted gesture and their services could be terminated – permanently.

"No one, no-FUCKING-one, tells me what to do. That fucking Brit will rue the day he crossed me. What d'ya think he wants, Mason?"

Mason, studiously concentrating on his feet, shrugs uncomfortably, mumbling:

"Don't know, boss. He's got me stumped."

"Yes, well, fortunately for you I've got an inkling and I've got a way of ridding us of both The Bat and my Fragrant Foe. Heheheheheheheehehehehehehehe!"

Over the next few days, a number of bodies of both males and females, young and old, appear around the city. The only thing they have in common is they are all single, all are naked wherever they're found and they all have two chrysanthemums on their corpses; one red, one white.


	7. The Batcave

**The Batcave**

Batman is sitting in front of his analysing equipment studying the genetic make-up of the flowers found at the sex party. He is talking to Commissioner Gordon on a screen:

"Very interesting. The genetic map shows these are not from commercial growers so wherever they've come from someone is breeding them specially. I've also cross-referenced their genetic map with the autopsy reports you sent me. It's only a hunch and I'm still running tests, but I'm guessing that the flower's fragrance has been modified to react with something in the human genome to create a poison. How fast acting it is, I don't know."


	8. Salt's penthouse suite

**Salt's penthouse suite**

Salt stands naked at the end of her bedroom, a thin riding crop hanging by her side. On her bed, face down, masked and limbs tied to each corner, lies a young man:

"Well, well. You've been a naught boy. I think you're going to have to pay, don't you?" And she walks lustfully towards the beautifully honed naked male.


	9. Gotham Cemetery

**Gotham Cemetery**

Batman stands outside the gates, staring out over the city. He is deep in, troubled, thought:

"What is going on? Things feel like they're coming to a climax but when? And where? Normally, I'd suspect The Joker but this feels too twisted, even for him, and too personal. And what's with the flowers? Are chrysanthemums the key or is it any flowers? I wonder, I wonder. Could it be…?"

As the wind swirls his cape, Batman suddenly becomes aware of a sweet smell in the air. Looking up, the sky is filled with red and white petals. As he watches the petals ebb and flow, without warning his legs are pulled from under him and he ends face down in the ground. In one fluid movement, he rolls forward, twists, squatting on one knee to face his assailant. But no one is there. He stands up and dusts himself down:

"Must be getting old."

Down in the city, the citizens of Gotham look up in wonder, joyful just to witness such a beautiful site. But no one dies.


	10. Gotham Museum of Art

**Gotham Museum of Art. Opening night of 'Flowers in Western Art.'**

There is a low hum as officials and workers bustle about readying the exhibition for its opening time. The main gallery is empty except for The Joker looking up at the Sunflowers.

Out of the shadows, The Chrysanthemum growls slowly and menacingly:

"I thought I told you stay outta my business."

"Mmmm. Yes, yes. Very clever. Your own idea? Use these fragrance units next to the pictures to poison anyone who wants to smell the flowers. And in the process hurt The Bat with what he loveth the most – the people of Gotham."

"You could make this easy on yourself. You could join me."

"No thanks. I have my reasons for ending The Bat's reign but it'll be in my own time and on my own terms."

Swooping down from the eaves, Batman lands in front of the two protagonists. He is momentarily confused to see two villains but before he has time to react, The Joker barks a command and his gang set up on him and The Chrysanthemum.

A ferocious battle follows and in the chaos The Joker slips away, his plan for mutually assured destruction set in motion.

Caught up in the storm, Batman doesn't hear the drones. They are carrying what looks like a mediaeval throne. They fly up behind him, knocking him into the seat. Immediately, steel restraints wrap themselves around his wrists. He sits writhing, powerless.

Meanwhile, The Chrysanthemum busily fights off his attackers. In the tumult, his mask has been ripped from his face but he keeps fighting until the last goon has been despatched.

Turning to Batman:

"Now we'll see who you really are before you watch your precious people die."

Batman gasps and huge tears start to ribbon down his face:

"Ben! No! No! Why did it have to be you?"

Not registering what he's saying, The Chrysanthemum reaches forward and rips off Batman's mask.

Seeing it is Bruce Wayne, Ben recoils as furrows of disbelief melt into horror:

"No. Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn-o! You. YOU made me who I am."

Ben slumps to his knees sobbing uncontrollably. And as he weeps, he lets out a long, piercing shriek of an animal in unimaginable pain. And the hairs on Batman's back stand on end in recognition of a lifetime of torment.


	11. Arkham Asylum Revisited

**Arkham Asylum**

On a screen in the darkened control room, Ben Davenport sits in his cell on the edge of his bed, convulsing regularly as weeping waves roll over him. At his feet lie slashed pictures of Batman and The Joker. At the desk a semi-naked guard lies slumped and lifeless. In the doorway, briefly silhouetted by the corridor light, a woman with grey hair dressed all in white, save for a black and white mask, black Chelsea boots and a silver belt, hurriedly leaves the room.


End file.
